Index
Abraham & Strauss (A&S), 126, 148
advertising: Associated Mortgage Companies, Inc.’s advertisement for its pool of mortgages, 233
for Bank of America personal loans, 95, 97
National Bank of North America’s anti–lender discrimination advertisement, 202, 346n135
targeting the urban working class, 32
targeting “young moderns,” 129
“You Furnish The Girl” slogan, 39
African Americans, 334n43, 341n1
African American wealth gap in the suburbs, 137–45
and credit discrimination, 7, 173, 174–90, 204–5, 215–17, 242
in urban ghettos, 173, 174–90. See also riots in the 1960s, and the changing of credit policies After Theory (Eagleton), 294n10
All These Rights (J. Klein), 295n11
Allen’s department store, 117
Alliance, 278
American Bankers Association (ABA), 60, 87, 110, 260
1938 survey of, 88, 91, 92, 94, 313n79
American Express, 170, 240, 249
Optima card of, 249–50
American Finance Co., 27
American National Bank and Trust Company, 143
amortization, 47, 53, 57–58, 70, 303n10
Andrews, F. Emerson, 297n26
Angevene, Erma, 208
Apex Electrical Distributing Company, 29
Argosh, Mark, 268
Aronovici, Carol, 66
As We Forgive Our Debtors: Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in America (Warren, T. Sullivan, and Westbrook), 293n5
asset-backed securities, 4, 221, 224, 251. See also credit cards home equity loans
mortgage-backed securities Associated Credit Bureaus, 206, 212, 347n155
Associated Mortgage Companies, 228, 233
Association of Credit Apparel Stores, 111
Atlanta Constitution, 19
AT&T, 265
Universal Card, 265
Auriemma, Donald, 220
automobiles: 1920s financing of in the United States, 11, 20–27
1920s financing of in Europe, 298n61
Ayres, Milan, 22–23
Baldwin, Spencer, 62
Banco de Ponce, 185
Bank of America (BOA), 265
advertisements for its personal loans, 311n19
BankAmericard, 145, 196–97, 240
personal loan department of, 88
“Time Plan” financing system of, 67, 94–95, 97
Bank of New York, 273
Triumph system, 267
Bank One Funding Corp, 255, 257
Bankole, Edward, 270
banks: and collateral, 339n162
commercial banks’ “accommodation” loans, 74–75
commercial banks’ personal loan departments in the 1930s, 73, 74, 76, 79–80, 81, 86–87, 87–97
commercial banks’ response to New Deal policies, 70
“credit card banks,” 269
reluctance of to invest in consumer debt in the 1920s and early 1930s, 23–24, 30–31, 44, 48, 55, 73–78, 310n7
and the reselling of loans, 236–37
savings banks, 70
state limits on bank branches, 185
and subsidiary corporations, 253
in urban ghettos, 184–85. See also specific banks
Barr, Joseph, 201
Bartholow, Peter, 258
Basel I, 356n155
Basel II, 356n155
Beams, Elliot, 80
Becker, Gary, 346n128
Beckert, Sven, 295n11
Bell, William, 333n36
Benis, Martin, 355n141
Berry, Edwin, 137
Biggins, John C., 146
“Charg-It” plan, 146–48
Billions for Defense: Government Financing by the Defense Plant Corporation during World War II (White), 361n7
Black Wealth, White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality (Oliver), 332n21
Blank, David M., 48
Bloomingdale’s, 121, 122, 148, 326n175
and permanent budget accounts (PBAs), 121, 124, 125, 326n166
Bodie, Zvi, 353n76
Bollman, David, 159
bond insurance companies, 278
Box, The (Levinson), 295n11
Boyer, Gene, 203
Brady, Nicholas, 260
Brandt, Lillian, 297n26
Brendsel, Leland, 239
Brennan, William, 245
Bretton Woods, collapse of, 8
Brinkerhoff, Philip, 231
Brobeck, Stephen, 277
Brock, William, 192
Brown, Bonnar, 113–14, 114, 118
Brown, Edward, 106
Budnowitz, Joseph, 297n41
Bullock’s department store, 130
Burdine’s department store, 116
Bureau of Federal Credit Unions, 186–87
Burge, W. Lee, 210
Bush, George H. W., 260
Buy Now, Pay Later: Advertising Credit, and Consumer Durables in the 1920s (Olney), 293n3, 294n9
Calder, Lendol, 294n9, 297n26, 297n39, 297n41, 297n44, 301n149
Caldor’s, 168
“Caldor’s Credit Card,” 168
Calvert, Robert, 152
capital, 5
allocation of, 5–6
risk-weighted capital, 256
transformation of into debt, 5
Capital Moves (Cowie), 295n11
capitalism: and the allocation of capital, 5–6
consumer capitalism, 7
and “profit maximizing,” 2
success of, 284–85
Caplan, P. I., 96
Caplovitz, David, 175–76, 176, 177, 343n25
“‘Carry Credit in Your Pocket’: The Early History of the Credit Card at Bank of America and Chase Manhattan” (Wolters), 316n2
Cassaday, Norman, 117
CBS News, 210
Central Bank (Walnut Creek, California), 250
Chadbourne, Archie, 36
Changing Times, 171
Charga-Plates, 117–18, 133, 145, 146, 149–50
group Charga-Plate plan, 326
in the postwar era, 120–27, 127–28
charge account credit. See open book credit
charge accounts, 10, 11, 111, 113–15, 145, 317n5
dichotomous definition of (“regular” and “revolving”) in the 1940s, 126
and Regulation W, 115–18
Chase Manhattan, 145, 170, 250
Chrysler, 109–10
Citibank, 170, 216, 220, 241–42, 245–46, 246, 255
“Citibank Ready-Credit Plan,” 170
and CMOs, 239
expansion of its credit card operations, 247
variable rate credit card, 261–62
Citigroup, 278
Claiborne, Charles de B., 10
Clark, A. Cornelius, 77–78, 88, 90
Clements, Michael, 249
Clouse, Roger, 114
Cohen, Lizabeth, 295n11, 341n2, 341–42n3
collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs), 237–39
and tranches, 238–39
Collier’s, 43
Collins, Robert M., 293n4
Colored Property (Freund), 295n11
Columbia University survey (1973), 353n83
Commercial Credit Company (CCC), 29, 164–65
Commercial Investment Trust, 300n106
commercial lending, 75
Commission on Civil Disorders. See Kerner Commission
“Concord Park: The Creation of an Interracial Postwar Suburb” (Willemin), 333n34
Conference Board, 1938 survey, 79
construction industry, effect of the Great Depression on, 48–49
response to New Deal policies, 62, 71
Riefler’s focus on, 53
Consumer Capitalism: Politics, Product Markets, and Firm Strategy in France and Germany (Trumbull), 295n13
and the American dream, 3–4, 282, 284
the consumer credit industry, 103
and credit “fairness” legislation, 174
and gender, 7, 37–42, 173, 191–206, 215–17, 327n199
postwar, 132–35 (see also suburbs, African American wealth gap in; suburbs, postwar credit in)
and race, 7, 44, 173, 174–90, 204–5, 214, 215–17, 270
Consumer Credit and Economic Stability (Nugent), 100, 101, 103, 105–6
Consumer Credit Protection Act (1968), 190, 191
Consumers’ Republic, A (Cohen), 295n11
“convenience credit,” 320n58
Cott, Nancy, 301n153
Courtney, Thomas E., 23
Couzens, James, 43–44
Cowie, Jefferson, 295n11
Craig, David, 106
credit bureaus, 90–91. See also credit reporting; credit scores
credit card bonds. See securitization
Credit Card Industry, The: A History (Mandell), 294n9
Credit Card Management, 270
Credit Card Use in the United States (Manning), 316n2
Credit Card Nation (Manning), 293n6, 316n2
in the 1990s, 261, 262, 264, 269, 274
affinity cards, 250–51
and balance transfers, 265
and behavioral models, 266–67
and “card surfers,” 265
and “charge-offs,” 241
the early failure of bank credit cards, 145–48
origin of, 98
prestige cards, 249–50, 355n132
and profitability models, 267–68
pure play credit card companies, 257–59
rebates on, 265–66
return of bank credit cards in the 1960s, 169–70
and “revolvers,” 241, 243, 266
and risk models, 269–72. See also specific credit cards; Charga-Plates; securitization
Credit Crunch of 1966, 224
Credit Data Corporation (CDC), 211–12, 348n186
Credit Management Year Book, 336n93
credit managers: and option accounts, 156–63
role of in the 1920s, 38, 39, 40–41
role of in the 1950s, 151–52
traditional credit managers, 214
credit markets, 4
credit rating agencies, 174
credit references, 342n13
credit reform: congressional hearings on, 182–90, 191–95
legislation concerning, 217–19. See also Consumer Credit Protection Act (1968)
credit reporting, 206–13. See also credit scores
and computer models, 214, 349n194
and predictive variables, 349n202. See also FICO (Fair, Isaac Corporation) score
credit unions: community credit unions, 186–87
investment in other credit unions, 344n66
Cremer, Richard, 214
Cronon, William, 294n11, 309n145
cultural studies, 294n10
cycle-billing, 323n115
Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, 109
D’Amato, Alfonse, push for an interest rate cap, 259–62, 273, 357n171
De Grazia, Victoria, 295n12
Debt for Sale (Williams), 293n6
Debt game show, 262
debt, moral view of, 75–77
Defense Plant Corporation, 361n7
Defense Production Act (1950), 127
deflation, 101
Dejay Clothing, 111
Delaware, rate deregulation in, 246
department stores: and coupon books, 326–27n180
and permanent budget accounts, 326n166
and the revolving credit system, 98, 116, 118, 120–27,130–31, 133–34, 148–56, 169, 241
and the Unicard program, 340n186
and women’s credit, 194. See also specific department stores; Charga-Plates; Federated Department Stores; May Department Stores Company; option accounts
Des Moines National Trust Company, 87
DeYoung, Dirk, 76
Dicken, Charles, 157
Diner’s Club, 98, 145, 197, 215, 217, 240, 249, 316n2
discriminant analysis, 242–44, 266
Dixon, Paul, 176–77, 178, 183, 188, 207
Douglas, Paul, 182
Downtown America (Isenberg), 295n11
Eagleton, Terry, 294n10
Eccles, Marriner, 56, 101, 101–2, 102, 103, 104
Economics of Discrimination (Becker), 346n128
Edwards, Paul, 333n36
Emergency Banking Act (1933), 317n4
Emergency Home Finance Act (1970), 231
English Hire-Purchase Act, 1938, The: A Measure to Regulate Installment Selling(Hamm), 100
Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA; 1974), 213–17, 242
Evans, David, 293–94n6
Evening World, 73
Fahey, John, 47
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA; 1970), 206, 207
Fair, Isaac & Company, 216, 266–67, 349n199
PreScore, 267
“fairness” in lending, 218
Falling from Grace: Downward Mobility in the Age of Affluence (K. Newman), 360–61n6
Fannie Mae. See Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA)
Farrar, Robert, 170
Farrington Manufacturing, 122–23, 127, 326n179
Farry, John, 202
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 210
Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), 55
Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB), 69, 225, 303n9
Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC), 231–34, 351n26
AMMINET computer network of, 231
and CMOs, 237–39
Federal Housing Administration (FHA), 46, 46–47, 53–55, 68, 71, 101, 225
attempts to make its lending policies raceneutral, 141–44, 332–33n32
Better Housing Program, 60–62
and the elimination of risk, 56
employment of businessmen (instead of New Deal eggheads), 59
insurance program of, 56–58
loan program of, 56–58, 70, 140–43, 230, 235, 305n55
major difference between the FHA and the PWA, 66
Planning Neighborhoods For Small Houses, 66
racial and class guidelines of, 65
racial relations officers of, 333n33
redefinition of home “ownership,” 72
refinancing of existing mortgages under, 308n117
success of, 62
and the systematic disinvestment in African Americanowned housing, 341n1
Underwriting Manual, 63–66, 136, 140–41
view of African American insurance companies, 334n43
Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), 2, 142, 225–26, 227, 228, 229, 231–34, 293n2, 305n52, 351n26
exemption from state and local taxes, 342n39
Federal Reserve, 98, 101, 102, 103, 115, 127, 127–28, 128, 129, 187, 225, 245, 246
and newspaper announcements, 320n59. See also Regulation B; Regulation Q; Regulation W
Federal Trade Commission (FTC), 34, 214
1968 report on urban ghetto consumers, 176, 177, 178, 179, 181, 342n9
Federated Acceptance Corporation, 163
Federated Department Stores, 130, 133, 148–49, 163, 336n73
1950s charge accounts offered to customers (installment, 30-day, and revolving budget accounts), 160
flexible credit limit plan, 153–55
focus of its expansion plans, 149
focus on postwar population shifts, 149
Feldman, Sheldon, 214
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (hooks), 347n139
FICO (Fair, Isaac Corporation) score, 218, 349n199
Fidelity Trust Company, 296n24
Fifteen Million Negroes and Fifteen Billion Dollars (Bell), 333n36
Filene’s, 148
and the 1920s financing of automobiles, 20–27
and the 1920s financing of other goods, 27–31
after the 1960s, 134
before the 1960s, 134
and collateral, 339n162
internal, or “captive,” finance companies, 28, 163–64
national finance companies, 164, 165. See also specific finance companies; installment credit
Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), 262
Financing the American Dream (Calder), 294n9
First National Bank of Louisville, 87
First National Bank of Omaha, 253
First National Credit Corporation, 253
First Wisconsin National Bank, 76
Foley, Thomas, 260
Ford Motor Company, 21–22
Ford, Gerald, 213
Ford, Henry, 43
Fortune magazine, 1956 series of articles, 281
Fowler, Edgar, 107
Fragile Middle Class, The (Warren, T. Sullivan, and Westbrook), 293n5
Frank, Aaron, 128
Freddie Mac. See Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC)
Freedom National Bank, 184–85
French, Henry, 19
Freund, David, 295n11
Frieman, Jorie, 194–95
From Cottonbelt to Sunbelt (Schulman), 325n143
Fuentes, Pressman, 347n141
Furness, Betty, 182, 183–84, 190
furniture industry: in the 1920s, 32–36, 40
installment sales of furniture under Regulation W, 109, 110
Gallagher hearings, 347n155
Garcia, Joseph, 170
Garvin’s department store, 159
Gatzert, Walter, 109
Gelpi, Rose-Maria, 295n12
General Electric (GE), 28, 134, 163, 165–69
General Electric Contracts Corporation (GECC; later General Electric Contracts Corporation, then GE Capital), 28, 165–69, 171, 242, 272, 340n168
“maintenance fee” of, 268
offer of “private label” credit to retailers, 168
rewards card, 265
General Motors (GM), 21, 21–22, 22, 25, 26, 31, 43
“fundamental index” for measuring success, 23
recognition of the importance of time sales, 25
General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC), 21, 22, 25, 25–26, 26, 31
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), 257
Generation Debt (Kamenetz), 260n275
Ginnie Mae. See Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA)
Glass-Steagall Act (1933), 68, 254–55
Glenn, John M., 297n26
GMAC v. Weinrich (1924), 32
Goldman Sachs, 255
Goodell, Charles, 206
Government Accounting Office (GAO), 257, 261
Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA), 227–29, 232, 233, 234, 351n26
exemption from all taxes, 352n39
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (1999), 278
foreclosures during, 48
Grebler, Leo, 48
Greenspan, Alan, 272
Greenwood Trust Co. v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1992), 359n251
Gribbon, John, 158, 159–60, 161–62, 338n118,338n138,338–39n139
Griffiths, Martha, 198
Groupe, Leonard, 275–76
Hagen, Mildred, 196, 199–200, 201
Halle Bros. Co., 117
Hamm, John, 100
Hamilton, Shane, 295n11
Hanch, Charles, 37
Harrell, C., 114
Hayer, Robert, 273
Hayward, William R., 1
Hecht, Rudolph, 60
Henderson, B. E., 106
Henderson, Leon, 20, 45, 85, 100, 102–3, 104,318n23
Herald Tribune, 73
Hill v. Chemical Bank (1992), 359n251
Hilton Hotel, Carte Blanche card, 170
Hire-Purchase in a Free Society (Harris, Naylor, and Seldon), 295n12
History of Consumer Credit, The: Doctrines and Practices (Gelpi), 295n12
Hodge, Paul, 115
home equity loans, 220–23, 234–37, 252, 275–78
Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), 46, 49–50, 68, 71, 302n24, 306n71
criticism of from business, 50
lack of funding for, 50
hooks, bell, 347n139
Hoover, 300n106
Hopkins, Harry, 66
Horowitz, Daniel, 293n6, 294n9
Household Finance Company, 13, 237, 266, 276, 278
Children’s Spending
instruction book, 281–82
Housing and Urban Development Act (1968), 221, 225, 231, 232, 283, 350n14
Section 235 program, 226–27, 334n42
Hubbard, Dehart, 141
Hudson County National Bank, 76
Hyman, Louis, 350n5
Ickes, Harold, 50, 51, 52, 59, 62, 71, 71–72
installment coupon books, 123–24
installment credit, 3, 4, 6, 10, 11, 12, 100, 100–101, 107–8, 113–14, 317n5
in the 1920s, 20–31
and class identity, 36–42
and collection fees, 29–30
comparison of to personal loans, 75–76
consumers’ abandonment of, 150
decrease in importance of by the early 1960s, 166–67
demise of, 167
and down payments, 29–30
at the end of the 1920s, 42–44
financial infrastructure of, 21
and gender relations, 36–42
and pricing schemes, 319n37
and Regulation W, 115–18
risk of for borrowers, 35–36
in urban ghettos, 177, 178, 179
in Western Europe, 8
without resale, 31–36
installment financing theory, in the 1920s and 1930s, 308n115
“Installment Selling and the Consumer: A Brief for Regulation” (Nugent and Henderson), 100
Interbank Card Association, 240
interest rates: D’Amato’s push for an interest rate cap, 259–62
the end of rate caps, 244–47
floating interest rates, 236, 272, 278, 279
individual interest rates, 218
interest rate deregulation, 246–47
of loan sharks, 14
London Interbank Offered Rate, 255
Irresistible Empire: America’s Advance through Twentieth-Century Europe (De Grazia), 295n12
Isenberg, Alison, 295n11
It’s in the Cards: Consumer Credit and the American Experience (L. Klein), 293n6
Jackson, Philip, 226
Jacob, John, 187–90
Jacobs, Meg, 295n11
Jacobson, Matthew, 302n180
Javits, Jacob, 182
J. C. Penny, 196
“jerry-building,” 63
J. N. Adam department store, 118
Johnson, E. O., 166
Johnson, Lyndon Baines, 175, 225
Johnson, Ray, 150–51
Johnston, Robert, 295n11
Jordan, Harry, 211
Kamenetz, Anya, 360n275
Kass, Benny, 177
Kaufman, J. A., 119
Kilguss, George, 237
King, Charles, 19
King, Rufus, 19
Kingman, Woodward, 229
Klein, Jennifer, 295n11
Klein, Lloyd, 293n6
Knauer, Virginia, 207
Land of Desire (Leach), 294n11
Landers Frary & Clark, 300n106
Landsman, Herbert, 153–54, 154, 155
Layer, Meredith, 263
Leach, William, 294n11
Leake, P. E., 19
Leavy, Richard, 271
Lebor, John, 133, 160–61, 162, 167, 169, 171
report of the true story of “Mr. Z,” 34
Leiter, William, 254
Levinson, Marc, 295n11
Liberal Credit Clothing, 111
licensed lenders, 18
Lieberman, Joseph, 260
Lipsitz, George, 302n180
loan-sharking, 1, 3, 12, 13–16, 16, 17, 18–19, 297n41
enforcement of loans, 82–83
interest rates of, 85
loan-sharking syndicates, 14, 15
response of loan sharks to the Uniform Small Loan Law, 19–20
why people borrowed from loan sharks, 14–15
Lockwood, W. J., 333n38
Lord & Taylor, 41
Making America Corporate (Zunz), 312n45
Malloy, James, 116
Manufacturers Hanover Bank, 250
Manufacturers Trust Company, 83, 85
composition of borrowers in the 1930s, 81–83
interest rates of, 84
personal loan department of, 86, 90, 81
Marquette National Bank Of Minneapolis v. First Of Omaha Service Corp. et al. (1978), 244–45, 246, 273, 274, 279
Martin, Curtis, 213
Maryland Bank, N.A. (MBNA), 250, 255, 258
“Master Builder,” 61
May Department Stores Company, 130–31, 336n73
McConnell, John, 41
McElhome, Josephine, 195
McFadden Act (1924), 49
McNamara, Frank, 98
McRae, J. P., 333–34n39
MDS Group, 268
Mellon Bank, 265–66
Meltzer, Allan, 305n46
Merrill, Lynch, 347n140
middle class, 81–83, 312n45. See also suburbs
Mihm, Stephen, 295n11
Miller, Stephen, 344–45n75
Miner, E. W., 28
Minnesota, Department of Human Rights, 195–96, 200
Minnesota’s First Bank System, 246
Mitchell, Charles, 76
Modern Housing for America (Radford), 304n39
“Modernize Morristown” campaign, 61
Moffett, James, 58, 59, 60, 68, 69, 69–70, 71, 80
on Title I loans, 81
Mondale, Walter, 182–83
Monied Metropolis, The (Beckert), 295n11
Montgomery Ward, 214
Morality of Spending, The: Attitudes toward the Consumer Society in America, 1875–1940 (Horowitz), 293n6, 294n9
More: The Politics of Economic Growth in Postwar America (Collins), 293n4
Moreton, Bethany, 295n11
Morgan Guaranty, 255
Morris, Arthur, 129
Morris, Nigel, 273
mortgage-backed securities, 221, 225, 226–34, 256, 350n13
“bond-like” securities, 228, 229
“modified pass-through” securities, 228, 229
mortgages: adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), 236–37
amortized mortgages, 47, 303n10, 303n11
balloon mortgages, 4, 47–49, 57
conventional mortgages, 230, 233, 351n34
directly owned, whole mortgages, 310n170
fixed-rate mortgages, 236
monthly payments and interest, 306n75
prior to the New Deal, 67–68
and suburban home ownership, 135–36
Title II mortgages and suburbanization, 63–67. See also mortgage-backed securities
Motor Dealers Credit Corporation (MDCC), 26
Myers, John, 239
Myers, Priscilla, 239
Nation of Counterfeiters, A (Mihm), 295n11
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), 141
National Association of Credit Men, 90
National Association of Home Builders, 142
National Automobile Dealers Association, 110
National Bank Act (1863), 245
National Bank of North America, 202, 346n134
National City Bank, 30, 74, 76, 79, 85, 86
1930s profits, 92
composition of borrowers in the 1930s, 81–83
interest rates of, 84
personal loan department of, 73, 74, 80, 89, 96
and savings accounts, 94
National Commission on Consumer Finance, 191–93
National Consumers League, 212
National Foundation for Consumer Credit, 325n142
National Housing Act (1934), 53–54, 69, 311n24
Title I home improvement loans, 54, 58–62, 78–87, 305n52, 311n24, 312n46 (see also banks, commercial banks’ personal loan departments in the 1930s)
Title II home mortgage loans, 54, 63–67, 305n52, 311n24
Title III Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), 54, 67–70, 305n52. See also Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
National Negro Insurance Association (NNIA), 142
National Organization for Women (NOW), 200, 206
credit task forces, 203
“positive image award” presented to National Bank of North America, 202
Women’s Legal Defense Fund, 195
National Recovery Administration (NRA), 59, 103–4
National Retail Dry Goods Association (NRDGA), 121, 127, 169
National Retail Furniture Association, 110
NationsBank, 272
Nature’s Metropolis (Cronon), 294n11, 309n145
Naylor, Margot, 295n12, 298n61
Neely, Frank, 128
Neifield, M. R., 93
Nelson v. Citibank (1992), 359n251
Neuristics, 271
Neuristics Edge, 271
and the competition of economic ideologies, 45–46
housing policy of (see Federal Housing Administration [FHA]; Home Owners’ Loan Corporation [HOLC]; Public Works Administration [PWA])
New Frugality, 263
New York, removal of usury laws in, 246
New York Amsterdam News, 32
New York Credit Men’s Association, 91, 96
New York Times, 56, 73, 83, 119–20, 129, 130
Newark News, 73
Newman, James, 165
Newman, Katherine, 360–61n6
Nicholson, Jennie, 296n24
Nocera, Joseph, 297n6
“Non-Consolidated Finance Company Subsidiary, The” (Benis), 355n141
North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, 142
Northern Illinois Finance Company, 23
Nugent, Rolf, 100, 101, 102–3, 105–6, 112,313n70
Oetzel, Kenneth, 153
Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), 186–87, 344n65, 344n69
Office of Price Administration (OPA), 102
rationing program, 104
Oldstone, 278
Oliver, Melvin, 332n21
Olney, Martha L., 293n3, 294n9
O’Mahoney, Joseph, 171
open book accounts. See charge accounts
open book credit, 107–8, 319–20n52, 320nn56, 57
option accounts, 156–63, 168, 171–72, 338n139
consumer response to, 158
ease of adoption and administration, 158–59
Origins of the Urban Crisis, The (Sugrue), 294n11, 332n27, 341n1
Otter, John, 128
Overspent American, The (Schor), 293n6
Painter, J. Andrew, 80, 85, 170, 310n1, 341n196
on Title I loans, 80–81
Parry, Carl, 112
participation certificates, 48, 68, 308n142
pawnbroking, 297n41
Paying with Plastic: The Digital Revolution in Buying and Borrowing (Evans and Schmalensee), 293–94n6
Pease, Robert, 232
pension funds, 224, 224–25, 233–34
“Pension Funds and Financial Innovation” (Bodie), 353n76
“People Who Are ‘Slow Pay’” (Gregg), 38–39
Perkins, James, 75, 76–77, 79, 87
moral vision of personal lending, 88
permanent budget accounts (PBAs), 121, 124, 125, 126, 130, 326n166
permanent life cycle hypothesis, 37
personal loans, 3, 6, 10, 11, 13–14, 18
amortized loans, 47, 53, 57–58
benefits of, 84
comparison of to installment credit, 75–76
legalization of, 35
salaries as the underpinning of in the 1930s, 89–90
as “a step to saving,” 76–77. See also banks, commercial banks’ personal loan departments in the 1930s
Piece of the Action, A: How the Middle Class Joined the Money Class (Nocerea), 294n7
Places of Their Own: African American Suburbanization in the 20th Century (Wiese), 329–30n2
Pocketbook Politics (Jacobs), 295n11
“Policy Origins of Securitization, The” (Hyman), 350n5
Poor Pay More, The: Consumer Practices of Low-Income Families (Caplovitz), 175–76, 343n25
Possessive Investment in Whiteness, The (Lipsitz), 302n180
Post, Langdon, 52
Pressman-Fuentes, Sonia, 203–4
Project Moneywise, 186–87, 344n61
Prowse, C. L., 337n116
Prowse, Clare, 158
Proxmire, William, 178, 182, 183, 184, 186, 187, 190, 233–34, 344n68
Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation (Cott), 301n153
Public Works Administration (PWA), 46, 55, 71
competition of with the FHA, 52
failure of to rehabilitate urban slums, 67
housing division of (Public Works Emergency Housing Corporation), 50–53
insufficient funding of, 52
the Left’s critique of, 52
major difference between the PWA and the FHA, 66
the private sector’s animosity toward, 51–52
Punch, Linda, 272
Radford, Gail, 304n39
Radical Middle Class, The (Johnston), 295n11
Ransom, Ronald, 103, 104, 105, 107, 108, 110–11, 112, 118
tightening of Regulation W, 115, 116
Rau, Roscoe, 108–9
Reagan, Ronald, 252
Real Bills doctrine, 305n46
recession: of 1937, 87
of 1981, 263
of 1982, 263
of 1992, 264–65
Reconstruction Finance Corporation, 67, 68, 305n52
Redig, William, 249
Refrigeration Discount Co., 27
Regulating Capital: Setting Standards for the International Finance System (Singer), 356n154
regulation (of debt), 2–3, 6, 283, 286. See also specific regulations; Uniform Small Loan Law
Regulation B, 242
Regulation Q, 350n3
cultivation of consent for, 102–5
demise of, 127–30
and the discontinuation of revolving credit, 121, 326n165
effects of, 108–13
tightening of, 113–18
transition to the postwar era, 118–20
types of credit inside and outside the regulation, 105–8
Regulation W: Experiment in Credit Control (Shay), 316n3
Reinsch, Sandra, 198
repossession, 11, 166–67, 312n56, 342n7, 342n21
by 1920s furniture dealers, 33–35
in urban ghettos, 178, 179, 180, 342n7
Republic Finance & Investment Company, 29, 30
Republic of Debtors (Mann), 295n11
resale (of debt), 2–3, 4, 6, 10–11, 31–36
Retail Credit Company, 207–8, 212, 348n186
manual of, 210
“Welcome Wagon” and “Welcome Newcomer” systems, 208–9
Retail Credit Institute (RCI), 119, 325n142
retail financing, 22–23
revolving credit, 3, 6, 8, 98, 99, 99, 118, 119, 157, 223, 283, 324n136
importance of in the suburbs, 150
in the postwar era, 120–31
as the replacement for installment credit, 166–69
and “slow pays,” 126. See also department stores, and the revolving credit system; option accounts
Reyburn, Samuel, 41
Richmond, Kenneth, 119, 123–24
Riefler, Winfield, 53, 55, 305n46
riots in the 1960s, and the changing of credit policies, 174–90, 341n2, 341–42n3
Roderick, James, 244
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 45, 46, 58, 59, 62, 66, 68, 69, 71, 98, 127, 305n52
definition of “banking institutions,” 317n4. See also New Deal
Russell Sage Foundation (RSF), 16, 20, 100, 103
Sachs, Nathan, 119
Sage, Frank R., 87
Sage, Margaret, 16
Sage, Russell, 16
Salomon Brothers, 255
Sanwa Bank, Visa Gold card, 277
Saturday Evening Post, 41–42
savings accounts, 76–77
decline in use of in the 1930s, 93–94
and usury laws, 315n110
Schaaf, A. H., 309n151
Schmalensee, Richard, 293–94n6
Schor, Juliet, 293n6
Schulman, Bruce, 293n6, 325n143
Schumer, Chuck, 261
Sears Roebuck Acceptance Corporation (SRAC), 163–64
Sears, Roebuck and Co., 11, 163, 177
credit training manual, 196
and open book credit, 320n56
and women’s credit, 196, 199–200
securitization, 4, 223, 252–57, 258–59, 261, 262, 273, 356n143
and pure play credit card companies, 257–59
Security Bankers’ Finance Corporation (SBFC), 19–20
Seeger, Murray, 180
Seibold, Stewart F., 61
Seidenberg, Faith, 204
Seldon, Arthur, 295n12, 298n61
Senft, Dexter, 239
Seventies, The (Schulman), 293n6
Shay, Robert P., 316n3
Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), 141
Shepherd, William, 43
Shipe, J. Orrin, 344n66
Sienkiewicz, C. A., 110
Singer, 11
Singer, David Andrew, 356n154
small loans. See personal loans
Smiley v. Citibank (1996), 273–75
Smith, Norman, 152
South Dakota, rate deregulation in, 246
Southern Urban Negro as a Consumer, The (Edwards), 333n36
Spafford, John, 347n155
Sparkman, John, 225
Spencer, William, 241
Spiegel, Emanuel, 142
Spiegel’s, 109
Sproehnle, Katherine, 39–40
on Regulation W, 107
on Title I loans, 81
Stewart, Homer, 197–98, 201–2, 218
stock market, 23
subprime loans, 269–75, 350n15
and emerging credit, 271
and recovering credit, 271
suburbs: African American wealth gap in, 137–45
importance of revolving credit in, 150
overlapping qualities of, 330n2
postwar credit in, 3–4, 135–37, 173
Sugrue, Thomas, 294n11, 308n136, 332n27, 341n1
Sullivan, Leonor, 192
Sullivan, Teresa, 293n5
Supply Priorities and Allocation Board, 101
Survey of Consumer Attitudes and Behavior (1961), 330n2
Survey of Consumer Finance (1958), 330n2
Survey of Consumer Finances, 243
tax code, and deductions on forms of interest, 251–52, 295n2. See also
Tax Reform Act (1986)
Tax Reform Act (1986), 251–52, 275
Tearno, Bessie, 151–52
The Wallace Company, 151
Thygerson, Kenneth, 238–39
Tikkanen v. Citibank (1992), 359n251
To Serve God and Wal-Mart (Moreton), 295n11
Tongue, Paul, 245
Trading Places (1983), 247
Trading with The Enemy Act (1917), 98, 317n4
Transunion, 348n186
Trimble, P. J., 32
Trotta, A. L., 130
Trotta, Leondias, 160
Trucking Company (Hamilton), 295n11
Truman, Harry S., 127
Trumbull, Gunnar, 295n13
Truth-in-Lending laws, 182
Tsongas, Paul, 215–16
“unbanked,” 270
Uniform Small Loan Law, 17–20
Universal Credit Corporation, 26–27
urban ghettos. See African Americans, in urban ghettos
proposed credit card program, 187–90, 332n19
view of credit, 137
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 43
U.S. Steel, 244
usury laws, 3, 13–14, 17, 32, 274, 316–17n3
Van Gordon, Sauter, 175
Veterans Administration (VA) loans, 70, 140–41, 143, 230
Wall Street Journal, 60, 92, 260
Warren, Elizabeth, 293n5
Wartime Powers Act, 127
Washington Mutual (WaMu), “On the House” card, 277
Watkins, George, 154
wealth, 329n1
Webster, Philip, 129
Weiss, Murray, 258
Wells, Kenneth, 143
Westbrook, Jay Lawrence, 293n5
Westin, Alan, 209
Westinghouse, 28
“What the Credit Manager Should Know About Financing Receivables?” (V. Brown), 240n186
Wheelock, David, 305n46
White, Gerald, 361n7
Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race(Jacobson), 302n180
Whitney, George, 183
wholesale financing, 22–23
Wiese, Andrew, 329–30n2
Willemin, Catherine, 333n34
Willer, William, 210
Winnick, Louis, 48
Wolters, Timothy, 316n2
women: and credit discrimination, 7, 37–39, 173, 191–206, 215–17, 242
divorced women’s credit identity, 198–200, 202
economic identity of, 193–94
feminist credit activists, 193–94, 203–6, 214
married women’s credit identity, 39–41, 193–98, 202
postwar benefits from option accounts, 157
single women’s credit identity, 37–39, 193, 202
Woodward & Lothrop, 123
Woolford, Cator, 207–8
Woolford, Guy, 207–8
Woosley, Elbert S., 87
working class: and borrowing from loan sharks, 14–15
as the prey of 1920s installment sellers, 32–36
World War II, effect of on lending and repayment practices, 8
“You Furnish The Girl” (Sproehnle), 39–40
“Your Home and Mine,” 61
Zimmerman, Julian, 53
zip codes, and credit scoring, 215–16, 349n197
Zipser, Alfred, 129
Zunz, Oliver, 312n45
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